SC[PAM]: Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix

Motivated by the worldwide implementation of smart city projects (SCPs) combined with the need for an assessment tool for these projects, a group of researchers from the Technical University of Madrid (Victoria Fernandez-Anez, Guillermo Velazquez, Fiamma Perez-Prada and Andrés Monzón) propose Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix (SC[PAM]). It is about a holistic approach on not only assessing smart city initiatives through SCPs, but also establishing relationships between the effects of smart city strategies and the current urban challenges.

Abstract

There is much enthusiasm about smart city development, but the actual implementation of smart projects creates a need for specific methodologies to assess smart city projects. This paper proposes a holistic framework for assessing and interrelating smart city projects and urban challenges in a specific region and for evaluating the projects’ potential to generate effects. A generalized Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix (SC[PAM]) is proposed as a tool and applied to the South and East Mediterranean Region at both the regional and project levels. The tool is validated through its application to five case studies. Guidelines for project implementation in the area are extracted.

Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix

First, the authors suggest a taxonomy of smart city project actions grouped by project areas, corresponding to each smart city dimension (Governance, Economy, Mobility, Environment, People, Living). Then, they relate the above project actions to the challenges they potentially address.

This connection became the core of the developed assessment tool. Each project area could potentially affect more than one single challenge, always depending upon the perspective that the planner introduces when designing the solution. Otherwise, each challenge would be addressed through the implementation of different types of projects.

The Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix (SC[PAM]) is a matrix that offers partial and global results on the project, acting as a summary of all elements and providing for the extraction of the information from the combinations. The SC [PAM] relates the different project areas to the urban challenges according to their capacity to address them.

An example of the SC[PAM] tool in the case study of Zenata Eco-City project.

Three possible uses have been identified for the matrix at three different scales:

Project level: to evaluate the capacity of smart city projects to address urban challenges and to find possible improvements to address a higher number of challenges

City level: to analyze comprehensively the existing project in a city and to identify the areas and challenges that are and are not being covered

Regional level: to develop urban policies at a regional scale

Case Studies

The proposed assessment matrix is validated through five different case studies of the South and East Mediterranean Region. These cases are: